By Ellen Eisenberg

By Ellen Eisenberg, Executive Director of The Pennsylvania Institute for Instructional Coaching (PIIC)

Monday, October 14, 2013

Many coaches
are struggling with the practicality of keeping notes about their work with
colleagues. It’s not that they don’t want to keep appropriate and professional
notes; it’s more about the time it takes and the kind of notes that cause the
coaches to anguish over how to complete that kind of process. It’s certainly
not easy to do yet the rewards for taking the time to maintain records is
crucial to a coach’s success.

What many
practitioners do not understand is that coaches do not walk into school and
announce, “Oh, what should we do today?” Coaches plan and prepare for their
work with teachers every day. So, how do they know what they need to do in
preparation for their work with teachers? They keep notes so they can
differentiate their support to teachers; they keep notes so they know where
they are, where they want to go, and plan the steps it takes to get there.

Coaches need
to document not only what/how they work with colleagues but also what their
next steps are to provide ongoing, job-embedded professional development to
them. However, coaching is confidential so the documentation stays in the hands
of the coach and the teacher(s) being coached. Coaches and teachers work
together and co-construct the “look fors” (before)
in their collaborative consultation. When the coach visits the classroom (during), the coach uses the
co-constructed form to document what happened in the classroom. This form is
again used as the coach and teacher reflect and debrief (after) the lesson.This kind
of documentation is record keeping, a way for both the coach and teacher to
keep track of their work together. This is one kind of documentation.

The more
deliberate and thought-provoking kind of documentation is reflecting about the
practice. Some questions include: How do
you know the students were engaged in the work? Why were specific decisions
made? How do you know that the students reached the intended outcomes? How can this
practice be improved? What are the next steps to improve learning? These are
great conversation starters that encourage deep thinking and contemplation, critical
for ongoing discussions about student learning.

At the same
time, coaches need to reflect on their work with teachers and ask the
questions, “What am I doing to help teachers
change and improve their practice? What am I doing to help teachers improve
student engagement and outcomes?” Their relationships are developmental as
is the process for reflecting and determining next steps. Coaches need to know
what kind of support is necessary and if resources are required. They need to
reflect on the conversations, actions, and thinking throughout the BDA cycle of
coaching. They need to prepare themselves for the work they want to accomplish
with their colleagues. They need to review their goals and objectives and
determine if they have achieved what they set out to do. This process is
continual and strengthens practice. How can that happen if the only thing to
rely on is memory?

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Two interesting
related questions that I’ve been asked more and more frequently are how to
explain the coach’s role to a staff not familiar with instructional coaching
and how to describe or publicize what coaches do and how they do “it.”

First things
first… how do we define instructional coaching? Instructional coaching is a
sustainable teacher professional development model designed to help teachers
get better at what they do. Coaching is part of a whole-school improvement
strategy that fosters collective problem-solving and offers highly targeted
professional development embedded in teachers’ daily work. Instructional
coaches provide professional learning opportunities for teachers and school
leaders focused on classroom practices to increase student engagement, build
teacher capacity and improve student learning. Especially in this era of
educator effectiveness, coaches are in the perfect position to help teachers
implement effective instructional practices. That is their role. Some schools
have ongoing faculty meetings and share the school’s plan for school wide
improvement at every meeting; some schools rely on the coach to re-negotiate
their role and start talking about the new ideas for school wide change; some
schools started the previous year to gather the collective wisdom of the staff
and create focus groups to talk about school wide change with instructional
coaching as one intervention; some schools “hit the ground running” and are
changing the tires on a moving car! No matter how the coaching model and role
are “rolled out” in schools, consistency in practice and language are the best
ways to ensure a shared understanding of what and how coaches work with
teachers and administrators.

The coach’s
role needs to be shared in several ways, e.g., in print, in practice, and in perception.
So, what do I mean? Coaches ought to informally gather some data from his/her
colleagues and identify relevant and meaningful topics via a print or
electronic assessment survey of what the school needs to improve. This organic
list is generated by the staff so the teachers’ voices are clearly heard. After
a list is generated, the coach needs to circulate the list and identify
teachers with whom to work. Sometimes coaches ask for volunteers; sometimes they
ask their friends to be their emissaries of good will and spread the good word;
sometimes coaches are asked to work with all new teachers or specific grade
level teachers. Remember, coaching is not a deficit model so working only with
those teachers identified by the principal as needing support defeats the
purpose and goal of an effective instructional coaching model. However, if the
principal “assigns” the coach to work with teachers who are identified as
needing help, the coach must broaden his/her scope of work to include other
teachers as well. (The coach is following the principal’s directive and is
including other teachers to join the process in ways that support whole school
improvement.) Share with the staff ways that you can help support effective
instruction. Here’s where “show and tell” are your friends!

Working one-on-one is the best way to work with teachers. However, that is not always the reality of a coaching situation. If a coach
is a former staff member, s/he must elicit the support of friends and begin to
co-plan and co-facilitate some small group learning. An example of small group
learning is to offer mini professional learning on the use of evidence-based
literacy practices or questioning techniques as topics to demonstrate collaborative
practice. Coaches and teachers working together and showing how their work is
planned and facilitated speaks volumes. Helping teachers strengthen their
reflective practice encourages them to be innovative, especially when they know
that coaches are non-evaluative. This can be accomplished through a
professional learning community where vision, support, and understanding are
shared. If there is a school newsletter or “Coach’s Corner,” share stories of
success written by teachers who have seen changes in classroom practice and
student engagement as a result of the school’s adoption of an instructional
coaching model.

Building
relationships take time. Coaches understand adult learning strategies and honor
the teachers’ voices and choices. They demonstrate the BDA cycle of
consultation, collaboration, collective problem-solving, and confidentiality.
Their practical experiences, classroom habits, and coaching protocols
demonstrate a clear understanding of goals, objectives and professionalism.
There is a joint ownership for student and staff learning with mutual respect
evident. Changing perceptions can be challenging. The best way to do that is to
show how non-evaluative practices are collaborative, confidential, and critical
to success. Show that changing practice creates a change in belief. You can do
it!